The Little Fairies

Once there was a little girl who was very beautiful. This little girl
was a princess, and her name was Hilda. Hilda had many servants in her
home to do her bidding. She had two little servants to wait on her, and
each of these little servants had five other little servants. These
little servants were called hands and fingers.

She had two little servants to carry her everywhere she wanted to go.
These were called feet. She had two little servants to see for her,
called eyes, two to hear for her, called ears; one to talk for her,
called tongue; and servants to chew for her, called teeth.

Hilda took great pride in keeping these little servants clean and sweet.
But one day Hilda grew cross. She would not keep her little
hand-servants clean, and they would not wash her little eyes, or ears,
or feet, and these other little servants would not do their duty.

Soon her little teeth were dirty, for her hands gathered all the germs
they could find and carried them to her pretty little mouth. Her little
hand-servants would not curl her hair, which got tangled and ugly. The
little teeth would not chew her food well, so Hilda had a bad night with
the colic. In fact, her little servants treated Hilda so badly that her
mother was afraid some wicked person had sent an evil spirit over them.
I am afraid that this was true, for Hilda was cross, and sent that spell
into her little servants.

Things went on this way for a whole day, when Hilda's mother decided to
carry her to her Fairy Godmother, and see if she could do anything to
take this evil spirit from Hilda.

Hilda's Godmother was at home. The mother told her about how things had
been going. The Godmother was very sad. After talking it all over, she
gave Hilda a large bundle to carry home, and told her not to open it
until she reached the nursery. As soon as Hilda got to her own clean
little room, she started to untie the bundle. She heard a tiny little
voice, saying, "Hurry up, little Hilda, we are waiting for you." As soon
as she unwrapped the first piece in the bundle, a pail of nice warm
water, with sponge, soap, and towel, jumped out, and began washing her
face and hands. A toothbrush jumped out, and began washing her teeth; a
golden comb combed her pretty curls; a little fairy jumped out and took
off her dirty dress and put a clean one on her; and another small fairy
laced up her shoes, and then ran about, killing all the germs she could

find.

When the fairies and all the other wonders had finished their work,
Hilda was again a beautiful little girl, and more like a little princess
than ever. The Fairy Godmother came into the room and stooped and
kissed her.

Hilda, all of a sudden, opened her eyes and saw her beautiful mother
standing over her, kissing her. Hilda rubbed her eyes and found that she
had been asleep.

"O, mother," she said, "I have been asleep, and I had such a funny
dream, and the fairies were so nice to me." Hilda promised her mother
that she would never neglect her little servants again. This made the
mother very happy, and, for making that promise, she bought Hilda a nice
new doll, dressed like a fairy.

Hilda was so proud of her doll that she named her Fairy. Fairy has been
very good to Hilda, for every time she plays with her doll, Hilda always
makes sure that her face and hands are as clean as her little doll's.